This chapter compares the psychological reality of legal decision making with the models of ideal legal practice. The first section describes the bail decision-making task in the English criminal justice system, with a specific focus on the characteristics of the decision makers and the decision. The second section describes two models of ideal legal practice, namely due process and crime control. The third section reviews past research on the psychological process of bail decision making that demonstrates how the performance of legal decision makers is often divergent or in conflict with legal ideals. It also presents some new findings on how people perceive real and ideal practice in the context of bail. The final section discusses how we can bridge the divide between the reality of legal decision making, as demonstrated by psychological research, and the ideal practice of legal decision making, as proposed in law, by exploring potential explanations for practice and potential interventions for change.
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